Cleveland gets rave reviews from travel writers in town for conference

Tracy Boulian/The Plain DealerFran Golden, right, from Boston, dances under the lights to live music at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum along with other travel writers. They were attending a party for the North American Travel Journalists Association, in town through a promotion by Positively Cleveland.

CLEVELAND — What we take for granted in Cleveland, a group of travel writers found unique.

Some of the sights they liked: Big Fun in Cleveland Heights; the Christmas Story House in Tremont; and East Fourth Street, downtown's newest entertainment district.

"I think Cleveland is an incredible destination," said Carla Marie Rupp, free-lance journalist and travel writer from New York City. "You can make a whole trip out of coming to Cleveland."

The 60-year-old writer for magazines and Web sites especially liked the Magnum at Cedar Point.

Positively Cleveland, Northeast Ohio's primary tourism booster, is trying to raise Cleveland's profile among journalists this week by organizing and paying for tours to regional hotspots.

Positively Cleveland underwrote the trips as part of an agreement with the North American Travel Journalists Association, which is holding its annual conference this week at the Doubletree Hotel in Cleveland Downtown/Lakeside.

Trips ranged from half-day excursions, such as a bus tour to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, to a three-day tour of Erie County that included stops at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky and inventor Thomas Edison's birthplace in Milan Township.

The journalists said the region has family-oriented destinations as well as things to do for adults.

"Cleveland has the benefits of a city like Chicago without all the people," said Jeffrey Lehmann, who hosts "Weekend Explorer" on PBS.

He was surprised by the variety of food and architecture here. He raved about East Fourth Street.

Lisa Codianne Fowler of Sarasota, Fla., who hosts a travel show, had never been to Cleveland. People asked her why she was coming to Cleveland, and she wondered herself.

But she made the trip with her husband, Patrick.

"I'm having the time of my life," she said.

She and others talked about the nostalgic gags, games and knickknacks they found at Big Fun, a one-of-a-kind retro-toy emporium in Cleveland Heights.

Positively Cleveland and the state of Ohio have spent about $30,000 to pay for transportation, parties and dinners.

Samantha Fryberger, spokeswoman for Positively Cleveland, said that the event provided a good opportunity to bring attention to Cleveland.

"You want to expose them to everything you have in the city," she said.

Positively Cleveland took about two dozen journalists to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Wednesday. Photographers snapped shots of relics from Motown's heyday, and reporters asked docents about Bruce Springsteen memorabilia.

"It's been a wonderful time," said Linda Fasteson, who runs a Web site called Notable Travels and writes for The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, Mass.

Fasteson said that the conference gave her an opportunity to visit Ohio, a state she has driven through but never explored, and to pinpoint attractions that would be of interest to her target audience of older adults.

Positively Cleveland said about 100 writers, photographers, editors and exhibitors attended the conference. They hope their efforts will eventually lead to visitors spending more tourism dollars in the region.

An average of 14 million tourists travel to Cuyahoga County each year, and local tourism officials are hoping to keep that number stable despite the recession.